476
PARTISAN REVIEW
There is an accepted pattern for the academic man not only in his
intellectual but also in his personal life. In the latter, too, he cannot
afford to be conspicuously out of line. The university or college
operates within a community ranging from the large city to the
country town. Though the city may allow more opportunity for the
violation of bourgeois modes, the necessity of meeting a routine of
scheduled classes and the pressure from the students and the ad–
ministration forces him to dress soberly, speak circumspectly and be
wary of activities of an ungenteel nature. He therefore finds himself
gradually moving into a pattern not of his own making. The conflict
engendered by the contradiction between his style of life and his
critical attitude toward the prevailing norms may often, in the case
of the sensitive individual, take a heavy psychological toll.
As
a
result he either overcompensates by consciously immersing himself
in parochial attitudes shared by the folk, or finds that in any action
prompted by
his
critical attitude he is checked by awareness of the
ambiguity of his own motives. Often he finds an outlet by contribut–
ing to the little magazines where academicism is held in scorn. Ther:e
he indulges in the masochistic pleasure of whipping the sore spots
of the academic body social.
This is not to be taken to mean that all academicians fit into
the pattern we have described. It is the general outline we have in
mind, not particular cases. There are a minority of scholars 'Yho,
aware of their situation, refuse to accept it and strive to fulfill tlreir
role both as transmitters of culture and contributors to knowledge
by conscientious adherence to the critical attitude. They maintain
their devotion to their calling, though in the process they must suf–
fer for it in terms of diminished rewards and diminished prestige.
They are able to leaven the loaf of academic stereotype and to render
the continuance of American higher learning not completely futile .
Their position, however, is that of marginal men.
The position, function, and role of the group of intellectuals
commonly designated as bohemians differs considerably from that of
the academy. By bohemians we mean those intellectuals who form the
avant-garde in the creation and dissemination of ideas. They are, for
the most part, free-lance workers open to the most flexible kind of
intellectual exchange. However, their audience is a self-styled elite,
very small in number; and the little magazines are the vehicle
through which their ideas are made manifest. The minimal size of
the audience has as its psychological concomitant the heightening of
